Distinguishing Lives Through Coffee [#STB Coffee Prompt Week 75]

Today, Sunday morning, the sun filtered timidly through my kitchen window, as if knowing it was time to make coffee. It wasn't wrong. Every morning I go through my sacred ritual of boiling the water in the special coffee pot, I get the old jug and the old cloth strainer ready, and in it my favorite brand of coffee. Then I go to my balcony and with the beautiful view of my Caracas, I enjoy the warmth of my coffee. For me, coffee is not just a drink, it is a whole experience.

I am not the only one on the planet who has a coffee ritual. I know my brothers have theirs, my friends, and many others. On more than one occasion, as I look out from my balcony, I notice an Arabic sandwich shop and café across the street from the building. Outside the shop, they have tables and chairs for customers to eat and enjoy. There is something there that catches my attention and that is that people arrive early in the morning, most of them coming in for their first coffee, an espresso. Some of them alone and others in the company. I speculate that they may be owners of the other businesses that are about to start their day or neighbors who live nearby.

But what captivates me is the way they drink their coffee. Some do it leisurely, enjoying a cigarette. Others do it without taking their hands off the phone and some arrive in groups of three or more and they are full of joy, chatting at the top of their lungs.

It occurs to me to go downstairs for my coffee in the café and take a closer look at the people. The one with the cigarette looks lonely and pensive, his eyes lost in the passing vehicles and pedestrians. The ones who don't let go of their mobile phones seem to be in a hurry as if they are going to be late somewhere. The groupies are a spectacle. It comes out of their pores that they are energetic entrepreneurs, they talk tough, they give their opinion about the business and they let everyone know (because they shout a lot) that they are going to invest in this or that. I like them a lot, they are like coffee, pure energy.

I didn't dare to take pictures of them so as not to disturb them. The surprising thing was that, as I watched these people, I felt I could tell them apart by the way they drank coffee. There are the loners, the reflective, the dreamers, the realists, the hasty, the extroverts, and all this I discovered through coffee.

When I ordered my coffee, I asked for a rather dark espresso, just the way I like it, and to be served in a glass cup. Suddenly I felt something squeezing me. When I turned around, I noticed that everyone was staring at me. I approached the table and started drinking and the situation didn't change, nobody took their eyes off me. I wasn't doing anything abnormal, more than once I have seen people drinking coffee out of crystal glasses, but it seemed that at that moment I was like a celebrity. As people left, they said goodbye to me with friendly gestures and even phrases wishing me an extraordinary day. They somehow identified what I was like. It was wonderful to be there

This experience has given me the idea that every person can inspire me to create stories to tell on my blog. It is already in my plans to join those who every morning do their coffee-drinking ritual in the small Arab coffee shop that has nothing special but shines immensely for its coffee drinkers. People with stories that cry out to be told.